VISTA – Seventeen members of an Oceanside street gang will be prohibited from gathering in public and will face several other restrictions, within a specified area of the city, a judge ruled yesterday.

Superior Court Judge K. Michael Kirkman issued a permanent injunction against the Center Street gang, saying it constitutes a public nuisance. The order creates a "safety zone" within the gang's territory, which is roughly bounded by Mission Avenue to the north, Interstate 5 to the east, Missouri Avenue to the south and Horne Street to the west.

Because none of the people named in the original civil complaint responded to the preliminary injunction, issued in September, the order became permanent by default. None of those defendants appeared in court yesterday.

Three defendants were excluded from the order. One had not been served and paperwork for the others has not been filed with the court.

Deputy District Attorney Terri Perez said the original civil complaint, filed in August, names 20 of the Center Street gang's most active members. All are male and one, a 17-year-old, is a juvenile.

Outside the courtroom, Perez explained that a defendant could be removed from the injunction if he has not been active in the gang within five years and the state Department of Justice has purged him from its list of documented gang members.

"If we saw that this (injunction) was doing what we would like it to do, then we would happily let them off," Perez said.

Center Street's members are responsible for committing numerous crimes in Oceanside, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, burglary and drug crimes, according to court documents.

The injunction restricts the gang's members from associating with other gang members, wearing gang clothes, possessing guns or other dangerous weapons, selling drugs, or using gang hand signs.

They also are precluded from fighting, trespassing, littering, vandalizing property and making loud noise, according to court documents.

Violations of the injunction would be considered misdemeanor offenses punishable by jail terms.